


matchmaker.exe

by nighimpossible



Category: Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi - Fandom, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Title: BB-8's Parent Trap, Cunnilingus, Dirty Talk, F/M, Loss of Virginity, Masturbation, Matchmaker BB-8, Oral Sex, Sparring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 07:45:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13185522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nighimpossible/pseuds/nighimpossible
Summary: BB-8 chirps politely next to her, swiveling to look at the door Poe is trapped behind. “Poe?” Rey asks cautiously. She can't help the warmth in her tone—she’s smiling at the ludicrous situation, she can't help it. It's not often that you see a commander bested by a door. “You need a hand?”At the sound of her voice, the din of Poe attempting to the jiggle the lock on the other side of the door pauses. “Rey?” He curses briefly and then adds, rather darkly, “I said getRose. Buddy, you're asking for a reboot.”





	matchmaker.exe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [magisterequitum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magisterequitum/gifts).



> Beware: this definitely contains spoilers from _The Last Jedi_. For Jordan, obviously.

 

 

**1.** **034mechlightspeed_deactivation.exe**

 

“This thing really is a hunk of junk, just like Leia said,” Poe grits out, a wrench held between his teeth. His forehead shines with sweat, and Rey watches as he shrugs out of his jacket, shoving it behind a pile of loose wires. Rey is pretty sure they’re supposed to connect to something—maybe the quadrex power core itself. Brushing the dark curls out of his eyes with the back of his hand, Poe squints at an Isu-Sim SSP05 hyper-drive that is clearly broken.

 

“You keep calling the Millenium Falcon a piece of garbage and she's going to take offense,” Rey muses, handing him a soldering iron as he hands back the wrench without even looking over his shoulder. Rey's legs dangle into the small, square hole where Poe has stationed himself for the past hour and a half. “There’s a reason this old girl was infamous in her day. Han and Chewie fitted her out with the most state-of-the-art armaments, shielding—they even gerryrigged the Isu-Sim themselves.” Han would call someone out for besmirching the Falcon’s name. He’s not here anymore, therefore it is up to Rey to make sure this old bird gets the respect she deserves. 

 

“Isu-Sim or not,” Poe huffs out, looking up at her with a roguish grin on his face, “this thing wasn’t built to carry the entire Resistance at lightspeed.” He twists something sharply with a determined expression on his face. In response, sparks fly from the board of wires and knobs Poe has been manipulating since the Falcon fell out of lightspeed with a startling lurch—the very same lurch that had sent Rey and the rest of the Resistance flying into the nearest hard surface. Rey is certain she’ll have some tender bruises tomorrow.

 

Poe looks puzzled. “Strange,” he notes, looking at the damage to the hyper-speed drive in front of him. “It’s like someone threw a boulder into the motherboard.” He pauses, assessing the damage, trailing a calloused finger across the wiring. “Maybe not too hard of a fix, though. BB-8, can you scan the Falcon for any anomalies—thanks, buddy.” The small droid scurries off and Poe continues muttering to himself, probably about something important, but Rey tunes him out as she jumps down into the hatch and pushes his hand aside. She sees something familiar.

 

“Here,” she mutters, flipping a few switches and holding her hand out for the soldering iron. When Poe hesitates, Rey turns her head and glares at him pointedly. It would be a more effective move if they weren’t in such tight quarters. Instead, she nearly bangs her nose against his. Rey feels her breath catch in her throat: she hadn’t meant to get so close, but she’d seen the solution and was determined to fix it. “Iron, please.” The words come out quieter than she intended.

 

Poe hands over the tool. A single bead of sweat is dripping down his nose, and Rey finds herself distracted momentarily as it slinks down his cupid’s bow and falls onto his bottom lip. “Yeah, she’s all yours.”

 

Rey connects three frayed wires and melts two metal bits together in a vague attempt at a hyper-speed conduction array. Whatever circuit that finally makes its loop around the drive, it sends the Falcon back into lightspeed in a startling fashion. Rey grunts as the force of gravity throws her in Poe's direction. She crashes into him as they both hit the wall of the hatch with a solid _crack_. Rey hears Poe grunt with pain as his head _thunks_ against the metal behind them. If Rey thought she was close to Poe before, it was nothing compared to the entangled mess of limbs the two of them have since become. Poe has his back to the Falcon's metal siding with his legs sprawled out beneath her, and Rey has been thrust forward so that she’s now basically straddling the man. The g-force holds them there for a long moment: her chest glued to his, her hands pinned against his shoulders. It’s not comfortable, and when the initial jump to lightspeed has faded, Rey lets out a gasp of relief.

 

“Ow,” Poe moans beneath her. His hand goes for the back of his head, and when he pulls his fingers away, they are bloodless and clean. A reassuring sign.

 

“It’s probably because you called her garbage,” Rey suggests with a smile, now that the imminent threat of severe injury seems to have passed.

 

" _A warning would be great next time!_ " Rey hears Finn call out weakly from above.

 

Poe lets out a short laugh before looking her over. “Are _you_ okay?” When he reaches up and gently runs his fingers over her bicep, Rey flinches. She looks down and sees that she must have scratched herself on something in the jump to lightspeed. Her arm wrap is torn where a line of red cuts through her skin.

 

“Fine,” Rey says with a shrug. “Nothing I haven’t patched up on my own before.”

 

“You know, there’s this really strange thing about being a hero to the Resistance,” Poe teases. “You don’t have to do stuff like that alone anymore.”

 

Rey blushes furiously, turning her head away from him in the cramped space. “I’m not a hero.”

 

Poe leans his head back and barks out a laugh, followed by a wince as he bangs the back of his head again against the metal shaft of the hatch. “Yeah, okay, and General Organa isn’t a princess.”

 

Rey scowls and punches him in the arm lightly. “You know what I mean.”

 

If Rey is a hero, she certainly doesn’t feel like one. Luke’s powerful pulsations in the Force vanished soon after his face-off with Kylo Ren. His final sacrifice helped the last bits of the Resistance flee the First Order’s clutches. Rey cannot help but feel like a poor replacement for the last great hope of the Jedi order.

 

“Well, you got this piece of trash up and running again. Multiple times,” Poe notes.

 

“I'm a scavenger,” Rey replies. "I mean, I used to be a scavenger."  _Used_ to be a scavenger. Yeah, like every instinct in her body hasn't been finely tuned to that brutal, lonely life. Rey thinks she'll carry that title to her grave.

 

“I know,” Poe says. “Finn’s told me a lot about you.”

 

Rey warms at the mention of Finn’s name. He had found a lowly desert rat and seen a person. It’s more than most would have seen. Her smile is broad as she explains, “There was an advantage, knowing what the things I collected did. Knowing what they were worth. Understanding how the part fits into the whole.”

 

The edge of Poe’s mouth twitches, and he glances down at his lap where she still sits. “Um,” he says, rather profoundly. “Can you—”

 

Rey’s brow furrows as she extricates herself from Poe. She must be crushing him. “Sorry, I didn’t realize I was hurting—”

 

“No, _no_ ,” Poe waves off. “You didn’t hurt me.” For a moment, he seems as awkward as Rey feels, struggling for the right words. Eventually, he gives up, getting on his knees and looking at the newly welded hyper-speed drive. “You know your stuff, kid.”

 

The term of endearment burns her slightly. “Better than you,” she preens.

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Poe says with a roll of his eyes. “Don’t we know it.” He frowns at the damage to the drive. “Wonder how this thing got so fried in the first place.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

**2.** **lavatory_circuitoverride62415a.exe**

 

Rey nearly trips over BB-8 on her way to the commissary. The droid and Poe have been away on scouting missions across the planet Kathara, making sure that the world is clear of the First Order. Rey isn't sure Poe has slept for more than a few hours at a time since the Resistance had landed on the icy planet. It's not hard to figure out when their missions end: at least, not for Rey. BB-8 always seems to make it a point to find her in the aftermath. The burgeoning Eyrie Resistance base had slowly but surely been rebuilt since its days as a Rebel campsite. After a few days of serious exploration, Rey could now walk around the Eyrie with her eyes closed. Not that she’d want to, considering that the base is nearly fifteen thousand feet in the air off a cliff that dives down into what is likely an icy grave. But for now, this place is home.

 

Swirling around, BB-8 starts beeping at her in quick, overwhelming succession.

 

“Wait, wait. Slow down, BB-8. Poe is _what?_ ” Rey asks, crouching down to the droid’s level.

 

Poe’s cabin isn’t too far from her own. Rey thinks darkly that if he lived with the rest of the pilots in the barracks, then he wouldn’t be in this sticky situation. Since when do generationally talented flyboys get locked in the bathroom? She chalks it up to lack of sleep and a faulty circuit breaker. 

 

As she wanders inside Poe’s quarters, Rey hears Poe howling, “This isn't funny, BB-8!” The sound of him throwing his shoulder into the door resounds with an echo as he clearly attempts to barrel through.

 

Rey walks further inside and sees Poe's clothes laid out on the bed: they are strewn carefully, each article of clothing well-folded and clean. In fact, the whole room is well-kept and orderly. Rey makes an appreciative hum. She hadn't expected such tidiness from a cocksure pilot like Poe. A familiar jacket is sprawled out, and Rey finds her fingers briefly playing with the hem of the leather fabric. It is lovingly worn and soft to the touch. Rey notes the new regalia on the left shoulder panel.

 

BB-8 chirps politely next to her, swiveling to look at the door Poe is trapped behind. “Poe?” Rey asks cautiously. She can't help the warmth in her tone—she’s smiling at the ludicrous situation, she can't help it. It's not often that you see a commander bested by a door. “You need a hand?”

 

At the sound of her voice, the din of Poe attempting to the jiggle the lock on the other side of the door pauses. “Rey?” He curses briefly and then adds, rather darkly, “I said get _Rose._ Buddy, you're asking for a reboot.”

 

BB-8 looks up at Rey innocently, then whirls around her feet like a planet in orbit. “Alright, alright,” she murmurs, putting her hand out to the keypad by the door. It looks...tampered with, and Rey frowns. She inputs the general override passcode to most of the doors in the Eyrie, and when the door doesn’t open, she hums curiously. “Did you change the access code?” she asks through the door.

 

“What? No. And wait, hold on, I think I’ve—” Poe’s words are cut off as Rey begins to focus on the door in the depths of her mind. It doesn’t take much concentration to nearly blast the door off its hinges. The metal smacks against the wall with a resounding _thud_ , but that’s not what surprises her.

 

What surprises her is Poe, mid-shoulder thrust, barreling through the doorway with a towel settled low on his hips, wearing not much else. His momentum nearly sends him toppling over, but he catches himself. Not the towel, though.

 

“Oh,” Rey says quietly, averting her gaze to the ceiling as Poe scrambles to cover himself. “Hello.” The men and women of the Resistance always refer to Poe as handsome. Rey agrees privately that Poe’s face is rather pleasing to the eye, as is the rest of his battle-toned physique. Rey sees her own fast-triggered instinct in every sinew of his body: ready to go at any moment, prepared for a firefight or a hasty escape. She clears her throat. “I loosened it for you. The door, I mean. Not the towel.” BB-8 chirps happily next to them while Rey wishes she could up and vanish. Quickly wanting to change the subject, she reaches for a new topic. “How was your mission?”

 

Poe laughs at last, and Rey breathes again. “Thanks for the help. Hope the show was worthy compensation.” Rey hears him rustling with fabric, and he clears his throat once he’s at least got some pants on. Rey looks back at a half-clothed Poe Dameron and sees an exhausted man in need of some sleep. “Mission went well. No signs of any First Order outposts on Kathara, so. Whatever remnants of the Empire that used to scout here must have gotten wiped out years ago.”

 

“Good news,” Rey nods politely.

 

“Very,” Poe says with a yawn, reaching back to scratch his head. The movement is languid and slow. Rey can see the muscles in his abdomen and chest shift as he stretches. Her mouth feels very dry all of a sudden, and she licks her lips to smooth away the feeling.

 

“So—you get some rest and we tell no one about this?” Rey confirms, pointing at the bathroom door, now hanging slightly askance on its frame.

 

“Gods yes,” Poe chokes out, clearly relieved.

  

 

* * *

 

 

**3.** **evasive_manuveurs1a.exe**

 

“And that garbage chute is pretty much the only reason we escaped the Death Star,” Leia finishes with a shrug. “See, it’s a lot less exciting when you hear it from the tauntaun’s mouth.”

 

Finn and Rose are in near rapture, listening to the escapades of Jedi master Luke Skywalker, dashing smuggling Han Solo, and Princess Leia Organa from the general herself. Their newly found downtime on Kathara means that Leia has time to tell these stories. Rey thinks they’ve earned it. Gathered together in the Eyrie, the surviving Resistance fighters deserve a chance to catch their breath. When Rey looks out at the bright expanse beyond the blaster-proof windows, she has to squint. Kathara is snow-white and frigid, but beautiful. Somehow it reminds her of Jakku: the landscape is seemingly barren and uninhabited. There _is_ life on Kathara, however, but it's camouflaged—hidden to the naked eye. Overall, it is a perfect hiding spot for the Resistance . Rey hopes that here, hidden from the prying eyes of the First Order, the Resistance has enough time to recover what they lost.

 

“I heard they disguised themselves as—” Finn starts, and Rose finishes his sentence.

 

“ _Stormtroopers_!”

 

Rey laughs at Finn’s expression when Leia confirms the rumor. “You weren’t the first tender heart in those outfits,” she nods at Finn, who blushes under the general’s praise. “And I doubt you’ll be the last.”

 

“Leia,” a voice calls out from the back of the room, “scouting report from Black Six.”

 

“Poe,” Leia nods. Rey turns to see the newly minted commander with cheeks as red as berries from the harsh conditions outside. The hanger bay opens to the brutal tundra Kathara has to offer, and Rey doesn’t envy how Poe must brave the cold so often. She’s managed to avoid the outside so far. Rey hasn’t had great experiences with snow in the past.

 

An orange blur zooms past Poe to greet Rey, and she crouches down to brush the white flakes off of BB-8’s shell. “Hey there, buddy,” she grins. The droid beeps pleasantly before spinning on its axis and barreling past Poe, who has a moment where Rey thinks that he’s going to catch himself on something— _anything—_ and then he’s in freefall.

 

Rey’s right there, though, and she’s always had quick reflexes.

 

“Got you,” she says with a huff after Poe lands in her arms.

 

“Nice catch!” Finn calls out from behind Leia.

 

"Ten out of ten," Rose confirms.

 

Poe is heavy in her grasp as he looks up at her gratefully. “Thanks, Rey. I owe you one.”

 

It’s still strange, knowing Poe Dameron as a friend instead of as a story. Finn had told her so much about the plucky Resistance fighter he had managed to break out of the First Order’s brig. _Picture it: two handsome men in defiance of an Order they can no longer abide_ , she remembers Finn crowing. Handsome, indeed.

 

Leia looks down at the two of them as Rey helps Poe to his feet. “Droids...they really have a mind of their own,” she chuckles.

 

Poe, now standing on his own, frowns down at BB-8. “What’s gotten into you?” The droid chirps and swirls around him and Rey before speeding off, likely to try and find R2-D2. “Strange little creature.”

 

Poe fills Leia in on the most recent scouting trip while Finn and Rey help Rose up from her wheelchair. She’s doing a lot better than a few weeks ago, and Rey notes that the strength has returned to her legs. With Finn’s help, Rose is able to stand with the group of them. She’s healing. They all are.

 

“Rey,” Leia calls. “A word.”

 

Finn, Rose, and Poe leave the room while Rey approaches Leia alone. “Yes, General?”

 

“Just so we’re clear, you are now the last remaining member of the Jedi order,” Leia says carefully. “At least, in my opinion. And apparently, here, that’s what matters. Yes?”

 

Rey thinks for a moment and then nods. “Yes. I feel that Luke is gone beyond this realm.”

 

“He gave us hope. It’s not the first time.” Leia sounds mournful when she talks about her brother, but also joyous—like his return meant so much more than just buying time for the Resistance. And it did: it meant that the Jedi and the Resistance are as tied together now as they were when the Rebels were fighting against the Empire. “Anyway, whatever rules the Jedi left behind?” She locks eyes with Rey and smiles. “Screw ‘em.”

 

Rey is speechless. “General—”

 

“I don’t want to see you rotting away on some island alone, Rey. That was Luke’s fate. It doesn’t have to be yours.” With that, the General claps Rey on the shoulder. “Anyway, that vow of celibacy was always lunacy.”

 

Rey thinks her face turns the color of the salty ground on Crait. “Pardon?” she squeaks out.

 

Leia is already on her way out the door, but she turns her head and smirks at Rey. “I have eyes, and so do you.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

“ _I have eyes_ ,” Rey grouses, turning in for the evening with General Organa’s words dancing through her head. She throws her covers down and crawls into bed, hair still wet from her late night shower. Whatever Leia thinks she sees in Rey, well—

 

Rey has her hands down the front of her pants quickly enough.

 

The general has always been shrewd.

 

Poe Dameron is no longer a story in her head, and her life is better for that. Rey dips her fingers between her folds and finds that she is slick already with want. It doesn’t help that she’s been thinking about the way Poe had felt in her arms throughout her shower. Nothing really helps in that respect anymore.

 

She starts in slow, easy circles around her clit, two fingers trailing around her folds with purpose. Rey knows her body well, knows what she likes. Having spent so many years alone on Jakku, Rey had had more than a few nights to explore herself. She could tease herself for an eternity or get herself off in less than a minute, depending on her mood and the situation at hand. Tonight, she just wanted to get it over with and pretend that Leia wasn’t right about her feelings for Poe.

 

It’s just a crush. A stupid, silly crush for an unattainable member of the Resistance. Rey, though, regardless of whatever Jedi vows of celibacy, can’t afford things clouding her judgement. She’s dangerous enough as is. And if Poe is someone who makes her hazy, then perhaps a simple crush is more risky than meets the eye.

 

There aren’t many areas of Rey’s life where she can allow herself to be weak. Tonight, though, she’ll allow it. Rey imagines Poe with his mouth on her neck, thinks about if it were _his_ fingers at her core, and she whines a little as her orgasm begins to build. Rey aches, reaching up and brushing her finger-tip across her nipple, just hard enough to draw it to attention. _I owe you one,_ Rey hears in Poe’s voice, low and gravely in her ear. Her rubbing gets rougher, more intent on completion, until finally—

 

“Damn right,” she hisses as she comes. Her thighs clench hard around her arm as the ripples of her pleasure begin to subside.

 

The shame is immediate and brutal. Poe Dameron is not a story but a man. She should not be imagining him otherwise. “This is the last time,” Rey tells herself in the dark. She wishes that weren’t a lie.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

**4.**   **r** **ecreationschedule_rey.exe**

 

The Eyrie keeps them safe while the members of the Resistance at the Outer Rim converge upon the rag-tag team of fighters that took on the First Order and survived. Here on Kathara, surrounded by her friends, Rey attempts to continue her training on her own.

 

It’s hard without Luke. It was hard _with_ Luke, granted—hard to convince him to train her, hard to do the things he asked. Harder still to leave when she had so much left to learn. But the hardest thing now is something that Rey knows Luke had been grappling with for years: it is no easy thing to be the last of your kind.

 

“No,” Rey spits aloud. She cannot believe that she is the only one with the potential to become a true Jedi. There are more: there have to be. Rey will not be the final remnant of a dying breed. She will search the galaxy for people like her, once the First Order has been taken down.

 

Until then, she will train to become the Jedi master her future padawans deserve. And right now, she’s nowhere near close.

 

Raw strength Rey has in spades. Luke had seen it; Ren had seen it as well. Bursting through seams that are begging to rip apart, her power can present as an overwhelming, all-consuming frustration that clouds her judgement.

 

Today is one of those days.

 

She’s beating a punching bag to within an inch of its life and has been for the past half-hour? Hour? Rey doesn’t remember and doesn’t care to check when she stepped foot inside the Eyrie recreational facility. A few Resistance members were working out in there when she had walked into the gym, moved her arm wraps down to encircle her fists, and started beating the stuffing out of whatever inanimate object was in her way. Now, looking around, the place is empty. Rey sure knows how to clear a room, apparently.

 

“Thanks for letting BB-8 know, Jess,” a voice murmurs behind her. “I’ll take it from here.” Rey doesn’t turn around, but she knows that it’s Poe. She’s felt his energy approaching her for some time now, and she’s not sure what that exactly means.

 

“You’ve got that look on your face,” Poe says casually, circling Rey like she’s a wild animal he’s trying to tame. Poe’s abandoned his leather jacket and regular undershirt for a black tank top that Rey doesn’t think she’s ever seen before. His orange X-wing jumpsuit is tied around his waist, and Rey gets the impression that he hopped out of his ship and made his way directly to the recreational facility.

 

Someone clearly had been spooked.

 

“What look?” Rey asks viciously, punctuating her question with two punches to the sandbag in front of her. Poe makes a face and stills the swinging apparatus with both hands.

 

“The one that scared everyone out of the gym.”

 

“Not everyone,” Rey says, nodding at him.

 

Poe shrugs. “Takes more than that to scare me. Star destroyers, yes. You trying to work through something in the gym? Not so much.”

 

“Move,” Rey snarls, and with an agile step, Poe darts out of the way. Rey thrusts her strength as well as the Force into her final blow. The punching bag flies from its perch, smacking into the wall with a loud _boom_. The bag itself splits open and sand spills everywhere. Rey is reminded of home, briefly.

 

“Unless I should be scared,” Poe says pointedly. He eyes the broken sandbag warily. “You wanna talk?”

 

Rey takes a long moment to re-wrap her right hand. “No.”

 

Poe nods. “You wanna fight?”

 

“Yes. Wait, what?” But Poe is already running off to grab a few blocking pads from the corner. “Poe, I’m not going to be the one responsible for sending you to the infirmary.” Rey doesn’t doubt that he could fly loops around her, but she knows what her power can do. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone who doesn’t deserve it. She will not use the rawness of her strength as an excuse.

 

“You won’t be!” he calls back. “Think of it as an exercise in restraint. Leia’s gonna be pissed if she finds me in a bloody pulp tomorrow.”

 

Poe jogs back and lowers himself into a fighting stance. “I’m asking you to hold back. Can you do that?”

 

It’s a good question. “We’ll find out,” Rey shrugs, putting her fists up.

 

Keeping her emotions in control is easy at first: Poe’s proffered targets are in reach and Rey doesn’t have the urge to touch the Force at all. Poe’s got a smirk on his face that looks like a taunt, and Rey can’t help but smile back in turn. Their steps feel choreographed, like they’ve done this before. Rey’s breathing gets heavier as the targets get more difficult to reach. Poe holds his right hand two feet behind his left shoulder, and Rey just manages to tap it with her knuckles before ducking down to hit the next pad at Poe’s feet. The rhythm is faster now and more sporadic, Poe’s quiet affirmations spurring Rey forward: “That’s it, good, keep going. There you go.”

 

Frustration sparks in her gut as she whiffs at a target. Rey frowns and attempts to punch the next pad Poe raises, and when she does, she puts some real _oomph_ behind the strike. The Force flows through her, and Poe gets blown back, his feet skidding against the rubber floor.

 

“Restraint,” Poe growls.

 

“I’m _trying_ ,” Rey bites back. She wipes the sweat dripping off her brow with the back of her hand.

 

Poe drops the pads, putting his fists up for some proper one-on-one sparring. “Try _harder_.”

 

If their steps had felt familiar before, now—now they’re dancing. Step, punch, parry. Kick, sidestep, dodge. Rey can feel the heat radiating from Poe, pouring off his skin in waves. They are both breathing heavily now, and though Rey can remember having worked much harder during her few days under Luke’s tutelage on Ahch-To, she can’t remember feeling so—

 

“Hot,” Poe says shortly, putting up a hand to stop their sparring and stripping out of his tank top. “Alright, let’s go.”

 

Poe is more of a classically schooled fighter, likely from his military training. He holds his arms up in the proper position, always ready in an easy fighting stance. Rey is scrappy, however, having learned to fight on the sands of Jakku. She learned too young what it meant to lose a fistfight. It made her savage. She is sharp and nearly feral in her style, and she can tell that Poe is having a hard time keeping up.

 

“Rey,” Poe heaves out, but Rey is mid-strike and sends him backwards, sprawled over the rubber mat on the floor. Poe lets out a weak _oof_ before waving an imaginary white flag.

 

“You got me,” he breathes out. “Nice restraint.”

 

“Poe,” Rey gasps, running over and falling to her knees beside. “I’m sorry, are you alright?”

 

“You broke me, kid,” Poe sighs sarcastically, letting his head flop to the side so he can stare up at her. “You gotta be careful with antiques, you know.” After a long moment, he smiles and gets up on an elbow. “I’m fine. Have you ever heard of teasing before?”

 

Rey scowls and sits on the mat next to him. “It’s a new concept.” It’s not, but Poe doesn’t know that. “Did that seem particularly restrained to you?”

 

Poe makes a considering face. “Yes.” Rey grumbles, but Poe just smiles. “Rey, I know what you can do. This _was_ restraint. You did well.”

 

“This doesn’t _feel_ like restraint,” Rey blurts out. She puts her hand on the center of Poe’s chest, pressing down hard enough to push him onto his back and off his elbows. “Something burns inside me. This power—it scared Luke when I first met him. And he was right to be scared.” She relieves the pressure but leaves her fingertips on Poe’s skin. He is slick with sweat, and she can feel his heart beating beneath her touch. “Sometimes, it scares me, too.”

 

“So you’re scared,” Poe nods. He puts his hand atop Rey’s. “Good. It means you’re paying attention. The people who let this thing ride out to whatever end—who let the power control _them_ —those are the same people we’re fighting against.”

 

“But what if being scared is what’s holding me back?” Rey asks, voicing the fear out loud that she has held in her heart for the past few months.

 

Poe sits up. “I promise you,” he says after a momentary pause, “that we will never have to find out the answer to that question. Because whatever is out there, you’re not going to have to face it alone. It’s not going to be one lightsaber fight to make or break the Resistance. ” It’s a bad promise and Rey knows it, but she appreciates the attempt to calm her mind.

 

“I think if Luke were here, he would say that untamed power is the pull of the dark side,” Rey sighs. “I just hope that staying on the side of light is enough to win.”

 

“It is.” Poe’s voice is sure and true. “It has to be.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

5\. **shutdown.exe**

 

The Resistance is growing again: more recruits turn up every day with tales about the First Order crushing the small folk on the Outer Rim planets. 

 

“We’re in. It’s about time we took a stand against those villains.” 

 

“Did you _really_ ram a ship at lightspeed through a star destroyer?”

 

“Are you a real Jedi?” a small girl asks Rey. She’s the daughter of a farmer from Taris, and Rey squats down to chat with her.

 

“Yes,” Rey says with a smile. It feels more true each time she says it out loud.

 

“Can I see your lightsaber?” the little girl asks excitedly.

 

Rey frowns. In her final confrontation with Ren, the saber had broken. She has the pieces, but the core—the kyber crystal that gave the blade life—is dead. Rey pats the girl on her shoulder a little awkwardly and says, “As soon as I fix it.”

 

Fixing it is no easy task. Leia shows Rey a planet named Ilum in the Unknown Regions where kyber crystals can be mined. The Force-attuned crystals have their own collective consciousness. They want to be found—by the right wielder. Rey, for her part, is excited to craft a saber that is at its core her own. She’s done borrowing.

 

Chewie is outfitting the Falcon for a rendezvous on Ilum when Rey spots Poe arguing with BB-8 in the corridor near his X-wing.

 

“Listen, buddy. I know the game you’re playing, and I’m telling you—it’s not going to work.” Rey watches from afar as Poe runs an exasperated hand through his dark hair. “You can either stay with me and work X-wing missions, or you can go with her. Rey’s important, BB-8. She has places to be that aren’t here.” Poe reaches down and pets BB-8’s side. “She has places to be that aren’t with me. And that’s okay! If you want to go with her, that’s okay.”

 

BB-8 beeps mournfully. “Oh, I’d miss you, too, buddy. So much.” The droid cuddles against Poe’s leg, and Rey feels her heart ache. “Buddy?” Rey knows that she shouldn’t walk over, that clearly Poe and BB-8 were having a serious conversation, but the urgency in Poe’s voice draws her near. “Come on, BB-8, don’t be like that.”

 

“Is everything alright?” Rey asks, stooping down to where Poe is cracking open a panel in BB-8’s side.

 

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but my droid is having a temper tantrum,” Poe says with a sigh.

 

Rey sits down next to him. “Does this happen a lot?”

 

“No,” Poe says tightly, pushing what Rey assumes is the reboot button. Nothing happens. “He’s just being—” Poe grunts a little in his attempt to pop the window open to BB-8’s hardware inside— “difficult.”

 

After a few minutes of trying to flip a hard-to-reach switch inside, Poe looks apologetically at Rey. “Can you flip the switch on the right? I think you’ll have better luck.” Poe lifts up his hand and Rey presses her palm to his. Hers are smaller, indeed.

 

Rey snakes her hand inside and flips a switch. “Other switch,” Poe instructs. She flips the second switch. “The switch to the right,” Poe repeats, slipping his hand inside as well. It was cramped before, but now it’s impossible to move more than a centimeter or two. Rey looks over her shoulder at Poe with a look that reads _let me do this_. “Trust me, I know this droid like the back of my hand. Third switch.” He nudges her fingers to the right and slips his arm back out.

 

Rey reaches slightly deeper and finally finds the hard reboot switch. She flicks it on and BB-8 comes to life in her arms. “Hey, darling,” she coos. “Don’t scare us like that, alright?”

 

Poe is looking down at BB-8 with the eyes of someone who knows a good thing can’t last. “BB-8 really likes you, you know.”

 

Rey smiles ruefully. “That droid changed my life. I don’t really know where I’d be without them.” That is a lie: Rey knows. She’d be dead in an unmarked grave on Jakku, rotting away with the skeletons of her parents she had craved for so many years. She pats BB-8 gently before the droid speeds off. “Poe?”

 

Poe is about to leave the area of the corridor where BB-8 had had his small meltdown, but he looks over his shoulder back at her, a surprised expression on his face. “Yes?”

 

“Just, for the record: I’m not going anywhere.” She pauses and takes a step towards him. “I mean, I’m going to Ilum. But I’ll be back soon.” Poe is looking at her like she’s grown a second head. That’s alright, Rey thinks to herself. She’s just telling the truth, a truth Poe ought to know already. When she takes his hand, she adds: “And you’re important, too.”

 

Rey doesn’t give Poe a chance to reply: she simply squeezes his hand and darts off towards the Falcon. 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

** +1.  **

 

“So I figured out a few things after you ran off,” is how Poe starts. Rey whips her head around and finds that he’s standing in the doorway to her bedroom, arms crossed over his chest, looking at her with a self-satisfied expression on his face. 

 

Rey’s mission to Ilum had been a success: she had managed to find a few suitable kyber crystals for her new saber. All she had to do now was tinker. It was an exciting prospect, one that Rose especially had all kinds of ideas about. “Now, hear me out: green,” Rose had suggested, holding up the emerald kyber in her right hand and tossing the sapphire kyber to the wayside. “Totally brings out your eyes.”

 

Rey is dressed in her sleep clothes: a strange set of garments Jessika had handed her in their early days on Kathara. _For night,_ Jessika explained. Rey had never needed a change of clothing before, but the fabric is soft to the touch—and ultimately, Rey really isn’t in the business of turning down gifts. She spent too many years destitute and alone on Jakku for that. Regardless, Rey had planned on spending the evening trying to meditate. Perhaps she would find a way to connect to her new kyber core. An introduction of sorts before she jammed the crystal into her new saber.

 

Those plans went hurtling out the window when that reckless man had shown his face after dark.

 

Rey isn't sure what in particular her confession from earlier was intended to elicit. But Poe in her private quarters with _that_  look on his face? Rey hadn't realized that was in the cards. She cocks her hips to the side and tilts her chin up at him.

 

Poe clears his throat. “You wanna hear about it?”

 

When Rey nods silently, he steps forward and the door behind him seals shut automatically.

 

“First, my droid is obsessed with you,” Poe explains. “Which I get.”

 

“Oh?” Rey asks, flushing a little. “You do?”

 

“Yeah,” Poe nods, taking another careful step towards Rey. “Apple not far from the tree, you know.” He sighs and scratches the back of his head endearingly. “I think BB-8’s been causing these little _accidents_ so that we’ll spend time together—ergo, BB-8 will spend time with the two of us.”

 

“The little rascal,” Rey says, frank praise in her voice. She’s smiling, and Poe seems to take that as a good sign, because he smiles ruefully back at her and takes another step closer. If Rey reached her hand out, she could touch him.

 

“That’s a word for it,” Poe says with a shrug. "Trust me when I say we've had a long discussion about his behavior." His voice is softer now, and Rey finds her eyes darting to his lips. “Ultimately, I’d like to think it’s not a bug, but a feature.”

 

“What else,” Rey prompts, “did you figure out?” She raises an eyebrow at him: it's a taunt, one she hopes he'll take.

 

Poe runs his knuckles against Rey’s forearm. Her skin prickles with goosebumps in his wake. “Mostly that wanting you isn’t the sin I thought it was. That maybe BB-8 is right. Being a Jedi shouldn’t mean being alone.” When he looks her, his eyes are bright. “I’m in your orbit, Rey, and your pull is exhausting. I’m tired of trying to break free. And gods, I don’t _want_ to break free.” He lets out a shuddering sigh. “That’s what I figured out.”

 

A warm, gooey feeling seems to melt within her. There’s no fighting gravity, after all. She thinks distantly that the Poe Dameron she had made up in her head doesn’t hold a candle to the real person standing in front of her. Maybe he imagined her in the same way: a true Jedi, resolute and ready to take on the mantle of an ancient order. Maybe what he found instead was a girl: real, raw, and reckless. Rey does not move a muscle as Poe inches his face forwards. His breath is hot and smells like the heated stim-drink they serve at the commissary. “It’s, uh,” Rey says with an unexpected wave of bravery, “it’s a good thing you figured that out, because I’m all out of restraint.” 

 

"Good to know," Poe nods in agreement, easily closing the gap between their lips. 

 

Rey has watched holos about heroes and maidens, the ones where they kiss and ride off into the sunset together. Those kisses not only tended to be chaste and quick, but they also took place at the end of their respective stories. Those kisses were rewards for a tale well told. _This_ is no holo kiss and to Rey, this feels like the beginning of something—not the end. Poe holds the edge of her jaw in one large hand, while the other threads into her hair easily, drawing her close. Poe licks at the edge of her lips and Rey makes a quiet, desperate noise that Poe swallows. Her lips open up to his ministrations, and she sighs as his tongue delves into her mouth. He feels good, and Rey is over and done with dwelling in her past grief. Rey grabs at the front of his shirt and pulls him in. She hasn’t done this kind of thing much before—but kissing is a good start. And just because she’s inexperienced doesn’t mean that she’s hesitant.

 

Poe pulls back. “Hey,” he says breathlessly. “Should we—”

 

That won’t do.

 

“I _said_ , I’m all out of restraint,” Rey says impatiently. She nudges Poe up against her bed and pushes him backwards. He flops down onto the mattress and stares up at her with a heated look in his eyes. “Remember?”

 

“Alright. So don’t hold back,” Poe nods, and he gives her a small _bring it on_ gesture with the tips of his fingers.

 

“Famous last words, Commander,” Rey grins before she pounces. Framing his hips with her knees, she slowly but surely lowers herself down in a languid, solid grind. Poe lets out a groan that Rey finds herself proud to have elicited.

 

“Come here,” he growls, taking her in his arms and bringing her down against his chest. Poe’s hands are up the back of her shirt, warm and expansive. When she noses across his cheek to bite at his earlobe, Rey jerks as Poe’s nails rake down her back. Rey shudders at the feeling—drawn out pleasure with a dizzying hint of pain—and when her breath catches in her throat, Poe huffs out a gravely, “Fair’s fair.” 

 

He’s not wrong.

 

Rey sits up to remove her sleep shirt. She's not wearing anything underneath, and when she’s thrown the soft fabric halfway across the room, she finds Poe staring up at her with a look of amazement on his face. “What?” she asks sheepishly, crossing her arms over her naked chest.

 

“You know what,” Poe mutters, tugging her back towards him and flipping her down against the mattress. Rey sighs as Poe trails his mouth down her neck. “See, I figured out a few other things. Things about the future. About what I want.” His voice reverberates against her skin, and in her chest, it’s like the beginnings of an avalanche. Something, or _someone_ , is about to fall.

 

“What do you want?” Rey asks. Poe reaches up to kiss her mouth gently.

 

“I used to want to win the war, whatever the cost,” Poe says, his lips brushing against hers lightly. “Now I still want to win the war. But I also want to survive it. I want the Resistance to survive beyond the fighting. I don't know what it means to win if we all die in the process.” He laughs in disbelief, looking away. “I’m not sure if that’s wrong of me, but it’s how I feel.”

 

“It’s not wrong to want a life beyond this fight,” Rey argues, taking Poe by the face so that he has to lock eyes with her. “I want that for you, too.”

 

Poe looks wrecked, and he looks away from her, a hint of shame in his expression. “Rey, you don’t know the life I want. The things I want.”

 

Rey bites at the inside of her cheek. “Let me guess.” She brings her lips to his: it’s not so much a kiss as a slow, easy brushing of their mouths together. Rey licks out her tongue, wetting Poe’s bottom lip. It’s a tease. “Maybe it involves some of that.” Rey snakes her hands down so that she can peel up the edge of Poe’s shirt. “Some of this, too.” She helps Poe rip his shirt off, and smiles as a few locks of his hair stand in an errant direction. Rey drags her fingers down Poe’s chest and palms at his cock, a full bulge behind his pants. “Am I on the right track?”

 

“You could say that,” Poe grins at her, dipping his head down to kiss her sternum. He leaves little love bites as he makes his way down the hard planes of her stomach, and Rey moves his hands to her breasts for a little of that sweet friction. “Now, what do _you_ want?”

 

Rey’s never really tried dirty talk, so she just tells the truth. “Green. Miles of green.” Jakku is long behind her, but there are days that Rey thinks she will never shake that place entirely. Nothing grew on Jakku except for her. She doesn’t know if that is a condemnation of the planet or of herself. “I want to find a place full of life. Where good things grow.”

 

Rey lifts her hips up and Poe pulls her shorts down her long legs. 

 

“Okay,” Poe nods. “We can find you some green.”

 

“And rain,” she adds, thinking of Ahch-To. “So we can get soaked.”

 

Poe looks up at her from where he has settled in the vee of her hips. “ _We_?”

 

“We,” Rey affirms before flushing. _How presumptive._ “If we survive. And if you want to come with me.”

 

Poe laughs and presses a small kiss to her inner thigh. “Yeah, something tells me BB-8 is really going to love this idea.” Rey nearly glows beneath him before Poe clears his throat a little awkwardly. “Now comes the part where you tell me the truth. How much of this have you done before?”

 

Rey frowns a little. “Fingers, yes. But not much else.” Nervous energy ripples through her abdomen, and she manages a quiet, “But I’ll get much better, I promise, I’m a quick learner—”

 

Poe looks at her a little dumbfoundedly. “ _Quick learner—_ Rey, I’m not worried about that. I just want to make this good for you. Maybe starting with something you know and working our way up.” Rey reaches out a hand and tangles her fingers in his hair.

 

“Yes, alright,” she nods, relief bright in her voice. “I think I’d like that.”

 

At first he just places the heel of his hand against her clit, broad and warm, and Rey rolls her hips down in appreciation. Poe slots his fingers at the very edge of her folds and murmurs, “We must be doing something right,” as his hand comes away slick and shiny in the dim light of Rey’s bedroom. He lifts his fingers to his mouth, letting them slip between his lips in gesture that feels more intimate than Rey can express. Her breath catches in her throat as he swirls his tongue around for the taste of her, pink and searching. Poe raises an eyebrow at her, a broad smile blossoming under her direct gaze. His fingers slip out of his mouth, a line of saliva dragging between his lips and his fingertip.

 

“What?” he asks innocently.

 

Rey glares at him before primly, neatly, bending her knees and letting them fall open before him. Poe makes a noise in the back of his throat. “What?” Rey repeats with the same faux-innocence.

 

Poe doesn’t reply, simply drops to his elbows and scoots himself forward so that his mouth is near her apex. Rey can feel the huff of his breath against her skin. “Please,” she murmurs. “Please, Poe.” And then his mouth is on her. 

 

“ _Fuck_ —” Rey groans, bucking immediately at the unfamiliar sensation. “Sorry.” Poe adjusts himself accordingly, placing a strong forearm over the plane of her lower abdomen to hold her down. The flat of his tongue is broad and warm as he laps at her clit in slow, easy waves of pressure. “Gods, you’re good at that.” She shivers slightly as Poe lifts one leg over his shoulder, allowing him better access to her core.

 

Poe laughs a little against her folds, and her hips cant foward at the thrumming vibration. “It’s practice,” he tells her frankly. Rey doesn’t know how she feels about Poe practicing this on other people, but she does know this feels insanely good.

 

Her mind is mildly distracted at the thought of who else Poe might have done this kind of intimate dance with when he inserts a broad finger inside her. “ _Oh_ ,” she moans. “Yes, more.” This she knows, and even if Poe’s fingers are larger than her own, Rey finds the feeling familiar enough. Poe adds a second finger as he laps at her, his coordination as brutally savvy as ever. He is careful with her, slowly slotting himself in and out as he continues to lick her up. Rey has never felt more vulnerable in her life, but she trusts Poe. Maybe that's what makes this so good. Suddenly, Poe crooks his fingers inside her and Rey nearly suffocates the man, her thighs wrapping around his head like a vice.

 

“Easy now,” Poe calls out, voice muffled against her slick core. “You’re making me want to do that again.”

 

He does do it again, and this time Rey keens out loud at the sensation. She tries to relax her thighs, and Poe leans an elbow down on her inner thigh to press her back against the mattress. “Poe,” she hisses, hips bobbing up towards him. “Please, please please—”

 

Her orgasm is a shock to the system. Usually Rey can sense when she’s about to crest beyond the point of no return, but this—this is like Poe flipped a switch with his tongue. She comes hard down around his fingers, thighs squirming against him in an attempt to escape from his touch. Lying there in the brutal aftermath, she’s over-sensitive and aching. Rey reaches down and threads her fingers into Poe's hair, sighing in appreciation. “Holy shit.”

 

Poe grins up at her. He’s a mess, relatively speaking: his chin, mouth, and nose are all shiny with her slick. “Yeah?”

 

“Come here,” Rey demands, and she tugs him by the hair up towards her. It’s not a gentle pull and Poe nearly snarls at her, crawling up her naked body to kiss her greedily. It is strange but heady to taste herself on his tongue. “These— _off_ ,” Rey says resolutely, fingers pawing at the zipper to Poe’s pants. “It’s my turn.”

 

Poe is looking at her with eyes full of disbelief as she shirks off his pants and underwear with two quick hikes. “You don’t—you don’t need to—” Poe says weakly as she takes him in hand. “Ah, _fuck_.”

 

Poe’s cock is thick in her grip. Rey glares up at Poe, who is sitting back on his elbows with an expression of awe on his face. “I want to,” she says shortly. “Just—talk to me.” Rey immediately feels her face heat up, and she’s certain she’s flushed. “I like to hear you talk,” she adds quietly.

 

But Poe doesn’t laugh at her request, and the relief at his response is astonishing. “Okay. I can do that.”

 

Rey dips down to take the head of Poe’s cock in her mouth. She doesn’t know what to do with her hands, but Poe guides them to take hold of him lower down. “Watch the teeth. Yes, that’s it,” he murmurs. “Gods, the way you look wrapped around me, sweetheart.” Rey hums a little and Poe whimpers. “It’s the filthiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

 

After Rey lets some spit drip down her chin to slick up her hands, she bends with a feline arch of her back further to lick up the underside of his cock. “No,” Poe redacts with a groan, “ _that’s_ the filthiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

 

He does a good job at staying still as Rey sucks him down. Poe’s hips only buck up once, and that’s when Rey tries to swallow him down to the root. She chokes as he hits the back of her throat, coughing up a storm as Poe apologizes profusely. “We might need something to tie me down if we want to try that again,” Poe says with a contrite wince.

 

Rey raises an eyebrow. “Oh, next time we _are_ trying that,” she says with a mischievous grin.

 

Poe laughs, and the sound is so bright it nearly cuts through the dark room like a knife. “Put it on the list.”

 

“It’s good, though?” Rey confirms, wiping her mouth a little. She thinks she knows the answer to this question, but she wants to hear him say it.

 

“It’s so good, I’m honestly a little terrified,” Poe laughs shakily. “Are you sure you’ve never done this before?”

 

Rey ducks down to take him in her mouth again, but Poe reaches out a hand to stop her. “I’d really like to fuck you tonight,” he says plainly. “And if that’s going to happen, we need to move.”

 

Poe outlines a few different positions they could try. “On top, you’d have the most control,” Poe explains, and Rey interrupts him. Control sounds incredibly appealing for a first time.

 

“Yes, that one,” she nods, lifting a leg to straddle his stomach.

 

“Go slow,” Poe says gently. “And we can always stop. Hell, we stop now and I call this an incredibly successful night.”

 

“We’re not stopping. Just talk,” Rey says stiffly as she arches her back and aligns herself with his cock.

 

Poe hisses as she envelops the tip of him between her folds. “You know, I heard a lot about you. From Leia. From Finn. A lot of hero talk. A lot of stories. I think that kind of talk goes around easy in the Resistance. It keeps us going, right? We’re all a bunch of heroes, aren’t we?” Rey sinks down a little further. “But now that I know you, I think I’ve figured it out.” He rests his left hand on the outside of her thigh and takes the fingers of his right hand to pet at her clit. Rey sighs as her clenched core begins to relax, and she pushes down further—

 

Rey flinches as a brief, sharp pain seems to stab her deep inside. She eases up. “Slow,” Poe warns through clenched teeth. Rey realizes that it must be hard for him to stay in control while she tests the waters. _Excellent restraint_ , she notes.

 

“What did you figure out?” Rey pants, as she sinks down fully. Poe groans as Rey rolls her hips experimentally: the pain she’d felt is now just a dull soreness, one that eases as she rocks back and forth.

 

“You’re like me,” Poe grins up at her. “A little reckless. Full of hope.” 

 

“Nearly as pretty, too,” Rey grins. Poe rolls his eyes as he puts his hands on her hips.

 

“Pretty is relative.” Poe tentatively thrusts upwards to meet her arc downwards. Rey groans at the sensation, overwhelmed by the fullness, and Poe takes that as a good sign. “You’ve also got a soft heart. Don’t think that I missed it.”

 

Rey feels her mouth quiver. It’s something about herself that she wishes she could change: this weakness inside her. “Hey, no,” Poe says with a frown, clearly alarmed to have upset her. He sits up, still inside Rey, and she whimpers a little at the change in sensation. Poe wraps his arms around her and Rey noses her way into the crook of his neck. She breathes him in as he rocks into it. “I admire that about you.”

 

Rey leans her forehead against his. “I just—I hope it doesn’t make me weak,” she tells him in a tight voice.

 

“No,” Poe says resolutely. “I’m actually positive I don’t know anyone stronger than you. And I’m not talking about the Force.”

 

Rey kisses him at that because she has to: she feels clean in his arms though Rey is certain they’ll both need showers after this. Poe’s hips begin to buck, and Rey finally feels him fall apart at long last. “Rey,” he moans. “Sweetheart, I—”

 

“Come on,” Rey groans, locking her legs in the small of Poe’s back. “Give it to me.” She’s not sure exactly what she’s saying, but words start flowing from her mouth as Poe whines quietly against her shoulder. “You feel so good, you’re so good for me, _Poe_ —”

 

Poe is bucking up into her as Rey snakes a hand between them to rub at her clit: it’s easy enough and familiar to bring herself back to the brink as Poe’s thrusts become sporadic and a little rough. “Let’s go, commander,” Rey whispers in his ear, biting at his jaw, and suddenly: Poe is just gone. His hips stutter haphazardly as he lets out a quiet moan. Rey rubs furiously at herself and takes herself over the edge with ease. She clenches down around his cock as his orgasm begins to wane.

 

“Gods damn,” Poe breathes. Rey leans forward as they both come down from their natural high, pressing them back onto the mattress beneath their entwined limbs. Poe slips out from inside her and leaves the bed briefly to clean up and grab a damp washcloth. He tosses it to Rey from across the room, and she cleans the mess between her legs quickly.

 

“Shower?” Poe asks.

 

“Sleep,” Rey replies, patting the bed next to her and floating the washcloth from her hands to the laundry chute. It zips away through a pneumatic tube as Poe comes back to join her.

 

“I think we have a droid to thank tomorrow,” Rey says as Poe curls around her from behind.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Rey wakes up alone but with a note: _Working on something for you. Meet you on the hangar deck, if you can brave the cold._

 

Bundling up in as many layers as she can manage, Rey half-jogs her way to Poe. She doesn’t see him at first, but when she spies the cockpit of the Falcon, Rey notes that it is currently occupied.

 

“That’s some outfit there,” Poe laughs as Rey climbs up and into the Falcon. BB-8 chirps excitedly at her, and Rey pats his head with a gentle familiarity. “I really need to be taking style tips from you.”

 

“Shut up,” Rey grins. She leans down over the co-pilot’s chair. “What are you working on?”

 

Poe doesn’t reply, but instead looks up over his shoulder to kiss her sweetly. “Nothing crazy. Charting coordinates to Dantooine.”

 

“Dantooine?” Rey asks.

 

Poe holds up a holo tablet and Rey gasps.

 

“We gotta find you a green place,” Poe says with a shrug as Rey flips through image after image of a fertile, verdant landscape as far as the eye can see. “And we can start there.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, all of the part titles are BB-8 applications.


End file.
